Niger

DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced it is more than doubling the number of hungry people it feeds in Niger, providing assistance to 2.3 million people caught in a worsening food crisis caused by drought in the eastern Sahel.

WFP teams in many countries across Africa are delivering food to people hit by floods across the continent that are the worst in decades in some places. But WFP urgently needs new contributions to cope with the crisis.

WFP together with the Government of Niger, will today begin targeted free distributions of staple foodstuffs to the most vulnerable people to ensure that they have enough food through this year’s ‘lean season’ currently underway.

In an address to the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, WFP’s Executive Director, James Morris, has said that globalisation is an economic and social reality that must be managed if it is to become an effective tool to fight hunger.

As household food stocks begin to run low across the Sahel region of West Africa, the United Nations World Food Programme today urged the international community to continue supporting programmes which mitigate the very worst effects of food shortages among the most vulnerable.